TheCable

The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) says the current petrol scarcity may continue until subsidy is removed.

Mike Osatuyi, national operations controller, IPMAN, made this known in an interview with TheCable on Thursday.

After an 18-month extension, the federal government had said it would halt subsidy payments in June. 

Speaking on Wednesday, Mele Kyari, group chief executive officer (GCEO), Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, said the country currently has no problems importing petroleum products.

But the setback, Osatuyi said, was that oil marketers failed to get their products at government-approved prices, which automatically pushed prices up at various pumps.

He said independent marketers were getting petrol from depots at N240 per liter, excluding transportation.

“We are getting the product between N230 per litre and N240 per litre, without transportation. If I get the product at N260 per litre, how much should I sell?” he said.

“It is a terrible situation and that is where we are. This is the status update from yesterday night.

“There is rent and arbitrage and they are not giving us the product at the official price even though they (government) promised to do so.”

Osatuyi added that “it is until the federal government removes subsidy on petrol that all these (petrol scarcity) will be over”.

However, he said there is hope that normalcy may return to the fuel situation in a few days’ time.

“There is hope in sight by the middle of the month but not immediately,” Osatuyi said.

He said the solution to the lingering situation was to deregulate the downstream sector in June, as promised by the government.

“The solution is to deregulate and all the contestants of the presidency have said they will deregulate and Buhari said they will deregulate by June too,” he said.